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daxelrod

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I have a relatively high-end desktop with a nice monitor. I also have an aging laptop with a tiny screen and an anemic amount of RAM. Most of my computing ends up being done on the laptop.

With a family and a kid, it turns out I’d prefer to spend most of my time at the computer in common spaces; at the dinner table, on the couch, etc. so that I’m present and available for my family. This is far better than squirreling myself away in a room.

(Note that for work, I have a different computer, I’m talking about for life outside of work.)

Part of Apple clearly wants to do that with Focuses giving more control around what notifications people get in which contexts.

Unfortunately other parts seem to think the opposite. For example, Apple News by default sends notifications for puff pieces like years-in-review rather than just urgent breaking news.

MS is still probably somewhere in the supply chain of software you use.

They have contributed to the Linux Kernel, they own GitHub and NPM, they make an extremely popular editor, among other things.

It’s a different set of risks than depending on them directly, but they’re still there.

This is how a fintech Chief Compliance Officer explained it to me:

The industry that the SEC regulates is full of clever people who have a financial incentive to push rules as far as possible.

The concern is that if they provided a clear line between what is allowed and disallowed, that everyone will go right up to the line and then find creative ways to exploit how it’s defined.

The SEC prefers to keep the line fuzzy so that actors keep their behavior well on the “allowed” side.

I agree that it denotes an imbalance.

I also agree that terms like "white privilege" are intended as criticism. However I don't see them as criticism of the individual who has the privilege, but rather of the society whose circumstances gave them that privilege. The term is an attempt to promote systems thinking.

Why do you believe "privilege" is a negative word?

Also, assuming you mean Robin DiAngelo, what of hers have you read? She's pretty clear in both White Fragility and Nice Racism in advocating against "constant, deliberate, self-flaggelation" because they center the person doing it and take energy away from productive action.

And I wonder why in the world they took jobs as lecturers. If you don't have a passion for teaching, why take a job that pays substantially less than what you get in industry?

I don't know about this specific situation, but many professors enjoy and are good at research and see teaching as necessary overhead in their jobs. Professors tend to have much more freedom than people doing research in industry and for some people that's worth it.